Harper dogged by 2004 coalition letter

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood outside Rideau Hall on Saturday railing against the idea of opposition parties trying to band together and form a government.

But seven years ago, Harper sent a letter to the same address suggesting he’d be open to that, right down to working with the very party he now says should have no role in the government.

It was the fall of 2004 and Paul Martin’s newly elected minority Liberal government was teetering towards a non-confidence vote over the speech from the throne.

The opposition Tories, Bloc Quebecois and New Democrats got together to discuss what to do.

All three wanted amendments to the throne speech and had managed to agree on what they should look like.

Unlike the non-confidence motion that toppled Harper’s government on Friday, the one facing Martin in 2004 came only weeks after the election.

If he lost, it didn’t mean Parliament had to be dissolved right away. Rather than plunge the country back into a campaign, the governor general had the option to turn to the three opposition parties and see if they could take the reins.

So, the parties sent then-governor general Adrienne Clarkson a letter saying they’d welcome a chat.

“We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation,” the letter read.

“We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority.”

The letter didn’t mention a coalition government and at the time, Harper was quoted as saying he wasn’t attempting to form one.

“This is not a coalition,” he said. “My staff asked me what we should call this arrangement and I said it’s the opposition parties co-operating. Maybe it’s a co-opposition.”

While Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe told reporters on Saturday that they didn’t discuss a coalition, a message posted from his Twitter account suggested that was on the table.

“I do remember my meeting with Mr. Harper in 2004. He definitely talked about a coalition,” said the Twitter post.

Harper has now picked a new word to define it: illegitimate.

“If Canadians elect the other party, even by minority, you respect that judgment,” he said at his campaign kickoff on Saturday.

“It is illegitimate to attempt to overturn that and if you want to overturn it you go back to the people and get a mandate to do so.”

Kathleen Monk, a spokesperson for the Layton campaign, said the 2004 letter was only the first step in negotiations among the parties on what would happen if they defeated defeat Martin.

Since Harper had won the most seats of the opposition parties in that election, he wanted to take the lead, both the Bloc and NDP say.

Harper invited Layton and Duceppe to the initial meeting, and talks progressed to the point where Harper was asking what the Bloc would like in a new throne speech, Duceppe said.

“What do you want from the speech from the throne?,” Duceppe said Harper asked.

“What do you want from the budget?”

There were no talks about allocating cabinet seats among the parties.

Those are the kind of conversations Harper swears will happen between the Bloc and the Liberals if the Tories lose this campaign.

“It is not principled to have a party dedicated to the breakup of the country having a hand in the running of a government,” he said.

It was the promise of a larger role for the Bloc that saw Layton break away from the talks in 2004.

“I was not about to participate in any scheme cooked up by the Bloc and the Conservatives that would put the country in the hands of Stephen Harper,” Layton wrote in 2005.

In the end, the Liberals accepted amendments to the throne speech, avoiding that non-confidence vote.

Paul Martin’s government lasted 17 months, before going down to another non-confidence motion.